Anna's Jan Lokpal makes stringent provisions to punish bureaucrats, an outline

AS the Indian Parliament is expected to debate various versions of Lokpal drafts including Jan Lokpal Bill prepared by Team Anna Hazare on Saturday, here are a few excerpts of Hazare’s Jan Lokpal draft that are directly related to bureaucrats. For the record, these provisions are at the proposal stage, and the standing committee may not accept all of those in totality. Also, the government has so far accepted the inclusion of Group A officers into Lokpal, but the civil society members are emphasizing the lower bureaucracy to be brought under the ambit of Lokpal.

Some Excerpts of Jan Lokpal Draft

* For any act of corruption, the punishment shall not be less than six months of rigorous imprisonment and may extend up to imprisonment for life. If the beneficiary of an offense is a business entity, in addition to the other punishments provided for under this Act and under the Prevention of Corruption Act, a fine of up to five times the loss caused to the public shall be recovered from the accused and the recovery may be made from the assets of the business entity and from the personal assets of its Managing Directors, if the assets of the accused person are inadequate.

* If a public servant is convicted under the Prevention of Corruption Act, such public servant shall stand removed from his office.

* The Special Court will pass an order for the confiscation of all the assets and properties which it has found to have been acquired by the corrupt acts of the convicted public servants as well as the subsequent accruals on these assets.

* The Special Court would also determine whether apart from the above the accused person by his corrupt acts has also caused any loss to the exchequer or any other person and determine the amount of loss so caused. The Court shall make an order levying a fine on the accused persons so convicted for the recovery of the entire loss which his corrupt acts have caused and shall also apportion this amount among the various convicted accused persons to be recovered from them as fines.

* Every public servant shall within 3 months after the commencement of this Act and thereafter before the 30^th June of every year submit a statement of his assets and liabilities and those of the members of his family which shall include their sources of income, in the format prescribed by the Lokpal. Family of a public servant means the spouse and

such children and parents of the public servant and such other people as are dependent on him.

* The Head of each public authority shall ensure that all such statements are put on the website by 31^st of August of that year. If it is found that the public servant owns some property which was not disclosed in his statement of assets, that property would be liable to be confiscated by the Lokpal.